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San Jose Sharks’ Timo Meier (28) celebrates with teammates Joonas Donskoi (27) and Kevin Labanc (62) after scoring against the Montreal Canadiens during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Montreal, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)

SAN JOSE — Bob Boughner thought about sending a message and sitting some players for Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers after their lackluster performance against the Los Angeles Kings the night before.

Instead, Boughner wants to see how those players — Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc — respond after they were benched for large portions of the third period Friday in what became a 3-2 overtime loss to the Kings.

“We watched the game last night and we had a good meeting this morning,” Boughner said before Saturday’s game. “Called each other on the carpet a little bit and were very honest and transparent about things. This a chance to see how they’re going to respond now.

“We don’t want to be sitting up here every day talking about the same things. The players that know they need to get going here have definitely heard that face-to-face in front of their peers and this is a challenge to them.”

Going into Saturday, the Sharks had scored just 21 goals in 11 games this month and ranked 27th in the NHL with an average of 2.59 goals per game.

Clearly, Meier and Labanc are going to have to play a major role going forward if the Sharks are going to turn their season around.

Meier has 22 points in 39 games this season and is fourth on the team with 11 goals, but didn’t have a point in four games going into Saturday and was well off his 30-goal pace from last season. Labanc has 19 points in 39 games, but had been held off the scoresheet in five straight. He had 56 points last season.

“Timo and I, we’ve got to take more responsibility for ourselves and responsibility for the team to come and play every single night,” Labanc said Saturday. “Especially with the way things are going for ourselves right now, we’ve got to be those top guys that they can rely on to have that offensive production.

“We received the message and now we’ve just got to make sure we answer it (Saturday).”

Both players took only three shifts in the third period Friday. Meier finished with 14:10 of ice time, the third time in six games since Boughner took over as head coach Dec. 11 that he has played less than 15 minutes.

Meier, who had averaged 17 minutes and 35 seconds of ice time per game coming into Friday, has not been a healthy scratch since Oct. 23, 2017 when the Sharks played the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Meier was put back into the lineup three days later in Boston, and did not miss a game the rest of the season.

“He’s still a young guy. A lot of it is mental, a lot of it is confidence,” Boughner said of Meier. “We’re going to do our best to get them back to where it needs to be.

“He’s got to take ownership of that as well. He’s got to do his part and play a little more of a north-south game. He’s got to be harder to play against and be heavy on pucks and that’s what’s missing from him right now. It’s too much one and done.”

Entering Saturday, the Sharks have a 1-8-2 record in December and are 1-4-1 so far on this homestand as they’ve fallen to 15th and last place in the Western Conference. After Saturday, the Sharks (16-20-3) begin a five-game road trip on Tuesday in Detroit, followed by games in Pittsburgh, Columbus, Washington and St. Louis.

“We want to finish hits, we want to make sure that we’re physical,” Boughner said. “We want to make sure that we’re not a team that’s feeding their rush and turning pucks over. At important parts of our game, show a little maturity. Playing an honest game, playing a mature game.”

“Our biggest thing is just winning those 50-50 battles,” Labanc said. “It’s not X’s and O’s. It just winning those 50-50 battles, get pucks to the net and outwork guys. As soon we start doing that, that’s when things will start changing and the momentum will start shifting.”

Curtis Pashelka is the San Jose Sharks reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Prior to covering the Sharks, Curtis served as the high school sports editor for the East Bay. He also worked as a general assignment reporter covering motorsports, golf and college basketball, and as a backup writer on the A's, Giants and Warriors. He started at the organization in 2000 and spent close to eight years covering high school sports.